By Ginger Thompson (NYT)

Published: November 29, 2005

Manuel Zelaya, left, a logging magnate from the opposition Liberal Party who promised to expand social programs by cutting government spending and rooting out corruption, will be the next president, elections officials announced, even as ballots in the Sunday election were still being counted and final results were not expected for at least 48 hours. Manuel Orozco, a Honduras expert at the Washington-based group Inter-American Dialogue, said the preliminary results seemed to indicate that voters had rejected the platform of Mr. Zelaya's National Party challenger, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, built mostly on strengthening law enforcement efforts against youth gangs, in favor of Mr. Zelaya's promises to fight the poverty and unemployment that have driven young people into gangs. Ginger Thompson (NYT)